10.8.07 Issue: Suddenly There Came a Tapping

In which the staff of Emdashes reviews the high points and discusses the particulars of the previous week’s issue (or, occasionally, another edition).

Tessa Hadley’s story “Married Love” started out comic and, by the end, worked in helpless regret. This is one of those stories where it’s difficult to tell where the comic leaves off. The story reminded me of the flaky October-June marriage in Zoë Heller’s Notes on a Scandal; these families could be neighbors. The standout article for me was Rebecca Mead’s Reporter at Large, “Our Man in Pyongyang,” about Bobby Egan, a New Jersey restaurateur who is our primary back channel to North Korea.

And if you were considering following Nancy Franklin’s advice and watch Friday Night Lights, by all means do. Standup comedian Patton Oswalt called it “the closest thing…to a Dogme 95 film on television,” the endorsement that induced me to investigate.

The Writers Guild strike has upended both the foreseeable future for so many good shows (and their writers) and the ethics of purchasing a DVD (for which writers earn meager residuals—as of now), but note that Friday Night Lights’ creators are so confident in its quality that they offer a money-back guarantee. —Martin Schneider

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